The UK's population of 58 million is ethnically diverse. There are many different groups representing people with roots in countries around the world, such as Ireland, India, Uganda and Jamaica.

A traditional, Christian "white wedding"

There are approximately 27 millions Anglicans (of the Church of England), as well as Roman Catholics, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and Jews. There are a wide variety of accents in the UK, and only a tiny percentage of the population uses "Received Pronunciation", which is heard on the BBC World Service.

Education, health and social work, and manufacturing are the largest areas of employment. Tourism is becoming a major employer, and in 1996, 26 million business and pleasure visitors came to the UK from overseas. The Royal residencies, including Buckingham Palace in London, are particularly popular attractions.

The National Health Service (NHS) was introduced by the Labour government in 1945 and became the cornerstone of the welfare state. It continues to provide free health care for UK citizens, but over the past two decades the government has contained the growth of social welfare programmes. People are usually required to stop working in their 60s (60 years old for women and 65 for men) and they spend the rest of their lives in retirement, sometimes trying to survive on very small pensions provided by the government. Sixteen year olds can get married with their parents’ consent, but they are not legally adults until they are aged 18.

Many voluntary organisations which work in the UK, including Oxfam GB, claim that poverty is on the increase, and because of this millions of people feel powerless and excluded from society. In 1990 around seven million people were dependent on Income Support, a benefit payment which is provided by the government. It is not known exactly how many people are homeless because of poverty and the breakdown of families.

poverty

Crisis Shelter in London, where Oxfam sent blankets to be handed-out to homeless people

Millions of poor people around the world find that they cannot play a full part in society because of language barriers, illiteracy, or lack of confidence. This in turn means that they are excluded from taking part in the decision-making processes which affect their lives. In the UK too, this is often the reality for poor people.

food poverty

Food poverty means having too little money and other facilities to be able to eat healthy food. This has come about in the UK because traditional local shops are rapidly going out of business as large supermarket chains are being built on the outskirts of towns and cities. This means that people often have to travel some distance to buy their food. Poor people who cannot afford their own transport have to pay for public transport, which may be infrequent or unavailable. In a country where few own land where they can grow their own food, this situation makes life very difficult for poor people.

Sustain (a national development organisation) is working with Oxfam GB to help people to develop local schemes, such as a network of community cafés, food co-operatives, cooking clubs and voucher schemes to enable people in poor communities to have a healthy diet. Sustain and Oxfam also work with government departments to create policies which tackle food poverty.

homelessness

There are no national statistics on how many homeless people there are in the UK, but reports show that the number of people who have nowhere to live is rising. Sometimes young people whose families have broken down end up sleeping on the streets and begging because they have nowhere else to go.

The Big Issue newspaper

The Big Issue organisation was set up in 1991 to give homeless people the chance to make an income. It publishes a magazine, called The Big Issue, which is written by homeless people and then sold by them in the streets. The Big Issue has been very successful in giving homeless people the chance to make a living and in spreading public awareness of homelessness and its causes. Now homeless people sell local versions of The Big Issue on streets all around the world, including South Africa and Russia.

Top photo for Oxfam GB by Crispin Hughes; bottom photo for Oxfam GB by Crispin Zeeman

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